Red, White, and Berry Meringue Cookies: A can't miss Fourth of July recipe

Margot Harris for the Jersey JournalCrisp outside, chewy inside, these cookies are sure to add fireworks to your Fourth of July celebration.

I love myself a good meringue cookie. Why? Because I don’t feel as bad indulging in 5 of them when they’re only 12 calories a pop—sweet!

I’ve experimented with adding nuts, chocolate chips, and various other items to the mix, but this time I needed a treat for our Fourth of July picnic. I thought “What can I do to make them red, white and blue?” Well, the first thing that popped into my head was adding some type of berries. I happen to keep our freezer stocked with raspberries for summertime smoothies, so I gave it a whirl.

Oh… my… goodness. After the first bite I immediately reached for a second meringue. They taste like a raspberry creamsicle. I definitely wasn’t expecting it, but I’m so pleased! I think next up I may have to try it with orange flavoring. Mmmm….

Needless to say, they’ll be a hit at our Independence Day bash not only because of their festive nature, but because they’re so hard to resist!

Red, White and Berry Meringue CookiesYield: 4 dozen

¼ cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

3 large egg whites

¾ cup granulated sugar

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment, set aside.

Using a fork crush raspberries to extract juice. Place in a fine mesh sieve and separate seeds from pulp by pushing the berries with the back of a spoon or spatula. Reserve juice, discard excess pulp and seeds. You should have about 1 to 2 Tbsp of juice. Set aside.

Heat a pot with 1-inch of water, just to simmering. Place a large mixing bowl over the simmer water, add the sugar and egg whites and whisk to combine. Continue whisk until mixture is warm to touch (about 3 to 4 minutes).

Transfer mixing bowl to stand mixer, or use hand mixer for next step. Add cream of tartar to bowl. With whisk attachment, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add vanilla then continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Fold in raspberry juice just so that swirls start to form, but not so that the color is completely incorporated.

Fit a pastry bag with a large star-tip. Paint the inside of the bag with red and blue food coloring in a striped fashion. Place meringue mixture into pastry bag and pipe 2-inch rosettes on parchment-lined baking sheets. You can pipe them close together as the batter will not spread while cooking.

Bake meringue cookies for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Shut off oven and keep door closed allowing cookies to continue to slowly bake as oven cools. Remove cookies from oven after 2 hours. Keep stored in an air-tight container up to 2 weeks.

(Edit: An NJ.com user saw this entry and was inspired to post her own 4th of July-themed cookie. Take a look! If you have photos of your 4th of July-themed treats, upload them here)